Whether it will make it illegal for mechanically recovered meat to be included in statistics detailing the meat content of food products su…

On matters relating to food safety the Scottish Executive is advised by the Food Standards Agency. The agency is fully committed to ensuring that food manufacturers provide relevant and meaningful information for consumers.There have been increasing restrictions placed on production of ruminant mechanically recovered meat (MRM) and with effect from mid-August MRM production has been confined to pigs and poultry.Separate labelling of mechanically recovered meat in the ingredients list of pre-packed meat products has been a requirement since 1997. A recent agreement on a European definition of meat reinforces this labelling requirement, and in addition places mechanically recovered meat outside the definition for the purposes of the quantitative declaration of "meat" ingredients in meat products. The new definition has to be implemented by January 2003.